Blog

29-Jan-2012 V Is For Victor

It’s also for Valentine and virtual – call us old fashioned, but we like to think that Valentine’s day should be cute and warm and fun and not reduced to tasteless juvenile inuendo. Watch out for Anthony John Clarke’s new album ‘Laughing at Clowns’ due for release in the next few weeks – there’s a lovely track on there called ‘Valentine’… gentle, thoughtful, romantic, and all those good things. Then compare that masterpiece to the vaccuous drivel that crops up with depressing regularity on the Valentine cards that proliferate throughout shops everywhere. I mean, who needs

If you think I’m sexy
Phone me up or wave a flag
Or meet me in the bedroom
Cos I’d really like a …

… pause while card is opened…

… ooh, whatever word(s) will complete this wonderful rhyme? …

cuddle.

<Yawn>… but maybe we’re too old or stuffy or illiterate to appreciate the finer points of such elegantly crafted verse?

What is real nowadays? Very little it seems – reality is virtual on many fronts… eg the colour on a photo depends on the camera, the settings, the processing, etc… or for digital pics add in the vagaries of the scanner, the screen, the display software. Pantone is a great leveller for ensuring accurate colour reproduction when printing with a limited palette of spot colours, but we’ve searched in vain for a foolproof method of taking a design from vision to screen and then on to print.

It’s been an interesting week on the vocal front – we seem to be performing less and less acoustically these days and more often than not employing some form of amplification to raise the volume slightly.

Naturally the level should be such that it’s not uncomfortable for audience and/or performers. And louder doesn’t always mean clearer – in many venues where volume is the benchmark rather than the ability to actually hear the performers properly, the amplification only serves to muddy the sound and vocalists and instrumental virtuosos are often smothered amid over-zealous use of reverb and various other effects. We take great pains to ensure quality and clarity of sound, taking care not to assault the eardrums of those closest to the stage. We’re very proud of our Bose L1 Model 2 system and AER acoustic amp as they both work flawlessly on those fronts.

V is for Video… and Vlog… is writing blogs a little ‘old hat’ these days? Is reading a pastime of the past? Should everything be more immediate? Maybe audio blogging/podcasting? Or how about video blogging (Vlogging)? Would we gain more views or would we just be vlogging a dead horse?

Our next few scheduled appearances are shown below... details of these, and later gigs, are on our Gig List page. Additionally, we regularly pop in to residents nights and singarounds to do the occasional floor spot.